Michael Skakel is a nephew of Robert Kennedy's widow, Ethel. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2002 for fatally beating Martha Moxley with a golf club in 1975. The state Supreme Court recently rejected Skakel's request for a new trial, stating that the evidence doesn't back up his second story. His theory is that there were two other men who committed the crime, one of them being a large black man.

The killing took place in a wealthy suburb in Connecticut and went unsolved for decades. Skakel's attorneys, Hope Seeley and Hubert Santos, said that it was a "travesty" that the Connecticut courts would not allow the jury to see new evidence.

"Fairness and justice require no less," they said in a statement.

The attorneys plan to file another appeal, arguing that Skakel's former attorney, Michael Sherman, had provided inadequate counsel in the first case. They claim that he was unable to properly investigate the crime because he was having financial difficulties.

Skakel is now 49 years old and sought a new trial after a student from the same private school as Skakel implicated two other friends. The request was turned down by a judge in 2007, so Skakel then appealed to the highest court in the state. The friend implicating the other men has refused to speak to the media.

The judge argues that Skakel's theory is improbable because a large black man and a second man of mixed race would have stood out in this neighborhood.

"These three young men did not look like the average fourteen or fifteen year olds who would have blended into the crowd, particularly not in an area that was described by one witness as 'a fairly lily-white community,'" Justice Joette Katz wrote for the majority.

If it is indeed the case that Michael Skakel was framed and tried for a crime he didn't commit, then that would be highly unfortunate. However, if he and his attorneys are using the "black man did it" as their "Get out of jail free" card, then we should all be offended. Accusing black defendants of crimes they did not commit is not only unethical, but quite frequent and telling. It reminds us that our nation is one that is likely to believe that black men are criminals and social deviants. Such perceptions play a role in our justice system, which is why the United States has become a world leader in the numbers of black men it has been willing to incarcerate.

All families have a black sheep and this includes the Kennedy family. In spite of the great things the family has done for America and the African American community, Skakel's conviction is a reminder that even the best of us are never perfect.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and the author of the new book, "Black American Money." To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.